Tamil Nadu beat Baroda to win the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy

Dinesh Karthik led Tamil Nadu to their second Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy by beating Baroda in the final by seven wickets. Invited to bat, Baroda put up a dismal performance as they could negate Tamil Nadu’s spinning threat. After losing Ninad Rathva, the Baroda innings was steadied by Vishnu Solanki. However, the other opener and captain K Devdhar, too, took the long walk back to the pavilion for 16. After this they fell like a pack of cards Manimaran Siddharth (4/20) wreaked havoc.

Needing 121 to win the final, Tamil Nadu was set on course by openers Hari Nishanth (35) and N Jagadeesan (14). Apart from the openers, captain Dinesh Karthik (22), Baba Aparajith (29) and Shahrukh Khan (18) played beautifully to guide their team to a victory. Tamil Nadu overhauled the target with two overs to go.

“We played some really good cricket and we have been pretty consistent throughout,” said Karthik in the post-match presentation.

Manimaran Siddarth, adjudged player of the match, said: “I wanted to keep it simple. It paid off for me. I am really happy. My aim was to do well for my team. I have been working hard with my variations. The arm-ball has been my strength.”

Even though his team lost, captain Devdhar congratulated them for playing a good tournament.

“I firstly want to congratulate the Tamil Nadu team. I also want to say to my team that without any big players, we made it to the final, so great effort guys. Win/loss is part of the game. It was a good effort from us. We prepared really well, we got good support throughout the tournament. Our support staff put in the efforts. This (loss) can happen. We’ll take the positives from this.”

The Tamil Nadu side, in the tournament, had fielded the right blend of young and experienced players and hardly looked in any sort of trouble since their group stage encounters with dominating victories while chasing.